Youth Awareness of Tangible Cultural Heritage: Perspectives from the Experience of the Erasmus+ Project

Abstract

Cultural heritage is the resources that reflect the tangible and intangible assets, events and information in the society to which it belongs. In order to protect this heritage with modern, scientific, innovative and sustainable methods, it is necessary to increase the level of social awareness. In particular, activities aiming to increase young people's awareness about cultural heritage and their participation in conservation processes should be developed. This study aimed to share the experiences of the Erasmus+ Youth Exchange project named "From Past to Future", which intended to raise awareness of tangible cultural heritage and its protection among young people and to evaluate the level of achievement/succession of the project. 43 young people from three different countries participated in the "From the Past to the Future" Erasmus+ Youth Exchange project, which spanned an eight-month calendar. In the project, 14 activities prepared with the themes of "what, why and how we protect" were carried out about tangible cultural heritage assets; in addition to the activities, a questionnaire was applied to the participants. The outputs of the activities carried out in the project were interpreted by the experts, and the survey findings were evaluated using descriptive analysis. As a result, it can be said that young people mostly have information about the definition, scope and classification of tangible cultural heritage, they understand the cultural heritage values that are the underlying reason for the conservation of heritage assets, and they are aware that these values can be preserved by increasing the level of social awareness, and they tend to participate in similar projects. These results indicate that the "From the Past to the Future" Erasmus+ Youth Exchange project increases young people's knowledge, experience, sensitivity and awareness about cultural heritage and encourages their participation in conservation processes.